Tail lights and brake lights have been standard equipment on automobiles since the 1920's. While the automobile has become an improved mode of transportation over the years, little overall improvement has been made in the brightness and quality of most automobile tail and brake lights. In this regard, most, if not all vehicle tail and brake light assemblies employ incandescent lamps with diffusion covers for illuminating the rear of a vehicle. Thus, the need for a clear, distinct and brighter rear automobile lighting system is more important now than ever.
One attempt at solving the above mentioned problem has been to enhance the illumination of the rear portion of vehicles, through an additional rear brake assembly which is added by automobile manufacturers, and many automobile owners, to make the rear section of a vehicle more apparent to other drivers approaching from the rear. Also, modern legislation has also required such a third brake light to be added for this purpose. While such assemblies generally illuminate the rear of a vehicle with a greater amount of diffused light, such lighting systems still employ incandescent lamps and thus, are not clearer, brighter and more distinctive than the other light which presently illuminate the tail section of current automobiles.
Therefore, it would be highly desirable to have a much brighter, clearer and more distinct apparatus and method for illuminating the rear portion of a vehicle. Such a lighting apparatus should not merely diffuse light, but should produce a very distinctive glowing, halo effect that would be immediately apparent to another driver approaching the vehicle.
One such brighter, more distinctive light is produced by neon. However, neon bulbs are typically operated from high voltage, high current electrical sources that are not readily available in conventional automobile electrical systems. Moreover, even if such a high voltage source were available, the routing of high voltage cables throughout the rear of a vehicle would be extremely dangerous.
Because of the importance of sufficiently lighting the rear portion of a vehicle, a distinct challenge is presented for developing a very bright, relatively safe alternative illumination method for use on present day vehicles.
The evolution of automobile and truck engineering from the relatively elementary machines of yesterday to the complex vehicles of today, has been one of the most significant occurrences of this century. At the same time, there has been an immense increase in the volume of traffic on the highways, roads and streets of the United States during the same period. Because of the sheer volume of traffic and the cost and complexity of automobile and truck engineering, the emphasis of a large part of current automobile and truck engineering, is on the safety and reliability of the vehicles.
Nowhere is this emphasis more evident than in the area of automobile and truck lighting systems. In the early days of automobile manufacture, there were no headlights or tail-lights installed on vehicles. Brake lights, turn signal lights, reflectors, reverse and side warning lights, which are standard equipment on the vehicles of today were totally unheard of in the beginning of the auto industry.
However, several decades ago, as the number of automobiles and the amount of driving increased, the installation of headlights, tail and brake lights became a necessity as the driving public developed a strong interest in attempting to avoid accidents whenever possible. In this regard, the installation of tail and brake lights on such vehicles served to warn drivers of the presence of other vehicles in front of them, and the possibility other vehicles may make sudden and unexpected stops ahead.
While such brake and tail light systems served to provide warnings for the drivers of such vehicles, several problems emerged with the use of such brake and tail lights. In this regard, as the emphasis on style and appearance of vehicle design became important, the size of both tail and brake lights became smaller in many instances, and thus, more difficult to observe.
For example, in snowstorms, fog or rain, the visibility of brake and tail lights can be greatly diminished, so the likelihood of serious accidents is increased greatly.
The most serious problem with such light warning systems occur at night when it becomes more difficult for drivers to distinguish between tail and brake lights particularly, in the case of sudden and unexpected stops. In this regard, the danger of sudden stops and the inability of a driver to distinguish between tail and brake lights, coupled with the other problems mentioned above resulted in the above-mentioned safety legislation requiring that new model automobiles be equipment with a third separate brake light to help improve driver awareness of stopping vehicles.
The use of such a third brake light has proven highly beneficial in helping to prevent many costly and injurious rear end collisions. The success of such a third light is based upon its location, which unlike a traditional brake light configuration is positioned centrally disposed between the vehicle rear lights. In this centrally disposed position a driver approaching the rear of another vehicle is much less likely to confuse the taillights and brake lights of the vehicle. Moreover, by employing a third brake light that is usually energized independently of the other tail and brake lights, a fail safe feature is developed so if the other brake lights fail the third light will continue to operate. Thus, the third brake light greatly enhances the visibility of the vehicle from the rear and is a valuable addition to enhancing the safety of auto and truck operation.
Despite the many advantages of such a third brake light, a significant problem for manufacturers has developed relative to the location of such a light. In this regard, placing such a light between the rear window and the front edge of the trunk lid opening has proven to be very costly in that the light had to be mounted on the back of the automobile. Moreover, the placing of the lighting assembly in the rear window portion of the vehicle is not aesthetically pleasing and tends to block the rear view of the driver of a vehicle equipped with such an assembly. Thus, present construction requiring such a light to be placed in a housing mounted inside the vehicle in a secure manner serves to make the third brake light not only an expensive addition requiring installation by skilled and trained personnel but also posed a potential hazard.
Another problem associated with positioning such a third light inside the vehicle is that many new vehicles have tinted rear window glass to protect the driver and passengers from glare and to provide privacy to the occupants of the vehicle. In addition, certain other vehicle rear windows contain elaborate designs and distracting logos, which are either appended to or built into the rear window. Such tinted glass and window drawings therefore greatly impair the visibility of the third brake light for other drivers approaching the vehicle, particularly during daytime driving.
Therefore it would be highly desirable to have a new and improved apparatus and method of using it for illuminating the rear of a vehicle with a bright glowing light that would be relatively inexpensive and easy to install, that would be highly visible and that would not impair the view of a driver.
Because of the above mentioned problem several solutions have been proposed to find a less costly and more visible illuminating methods and apparatus.
One such attempt is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,857,890 that discloses a license plate holder equipped with a plurality of spaced apart incandescent lamps for reflecting light through a red lens frame material similar to the lens material of a conventional automobile taillight. In this arrangement, the incandescent lamps turn on each time the brake pedal is depressed to augment the normal brake light warning signals. While such an arrangement solves many of the above mentioned problems it has not proven to be totally satisfactory. In this regard, the incandescent lights are connected in series causing the entire lighting arrangement to fail should any one of the lamps fail. In addition because such lamps are spaced apart and very small they have proven to be less than satisfactory for warning purposes.
Another attempt is shown in U.S. patent application 07/839,814 that discloses a license plate holder with a single neon tube for providing a source of bright glowing light to illuminate the vehicle license plate and a rear portion of the motor vehicle. In this arrangement a low voltage high frequency transformer is mounted in the trunk of the vehicle and is coupled to a high voltage high frequency transformer mounted within a tube holder secured to the rear of the vehicle. While this method has proven highly successful it would be highly desirable to have an improved method and apparatus for illuminating the rear of a vehicle that would not require the mounting of a special power supply within the trunk of the motor vehicle, that would be safe and that would brightly illuminate the rear of the motor vehicle.